I love to budget. Budget, budget, budget. My life revolves around spending/saving a certain amount of money each month with the goal of saving the leftovers in a savings account.

It wasn't always like this. At one point, I was an irresponsible college student who blew money on frivolous items.

But now, as a parent and a freelance editor, budgeting is a necessity. There are some months when I have to stretch my income so thin that I can feel it slipping away. These are the rules that I keep to make sure we are financially sound.

I work from home. I knew at an early age that I would never be able to work from others because I prefer to set my own deadlines and do work that matters to me. I found writing, both creative and nonfiction to be the paths that would lead me to autonomy. Several years into school, I began to research freelance writing, journalism, and editing to see how I could establish myself as a freelance writer. It wasn't an easy venture: there are numerous scams and low paying monsters out there that will take great content out of your hands forever, but that doesn't mean there isn't honest, great-paying work for writers and stay at home folks. Here are the five sources of income that I used to start working from home and pay the bills:

NOTE: As of 2016, some of these needs editing, but the list is still valid.

That's what I said last night at the grocery store, and as soon as I had said it, I felt guilty. I wanted to change my mind. I had forgotten my canvas bag (it was a splurge trip). The bagger, a man in his late teens, braces smile, tall, the sort of teen that will be handsome when he is 35, and all of the girls will want to kick themselves for not giving him a chance.

He said, "Paper or plastic."

I said, "Whatever's best for you." As though his morality must choose the substance. Seriously, I put my environmental conscience on him. So, if he chose plastic, I was free from guilt...since he gave it to me. Wrong. So wrong. I've been an environmental advocate for most of my life. I preserve things and don't believe in wasting if I can avoid it.

After the traumatic trip, I got home and stared at the plastic bag...I couldn't help but think that that little bastard is going to end up in "the patch.

Want to be a regular contributor? Look at the channels I have and if you are interested, send me your writing resume, and what you would write about if you were brought on. This is not a paid opportunity at the moment, but will be in the future.

I'm looking for killer guest posts too. Do you have one? I don't require that you have the entire post completed before contacting me...that seems silly. Shoot me an email and we will throw some topics around and get to know each other better.

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